It's been exactly 8 weeks since my last entry was posted...mostly because I've been a very, very busy girl since then. I haven't even been playing on Facebook...Jo took over my games and I only go there now to read updates from my friends.

My busyness started when I began watching a new show on A & E network on Monday nights...'Hoarders'. After the first show, I realized that my mother had been a hoarder and I gained a lot of insight into what that means. A few days later, I went over to Jo's house and found myself absolutely disgusted. She's always kept a cluttered house, but this time it was positively filthy. There was literally a path from room to room, with no other floor space visible. Dirty dishes, flies and gnats, yucky floors...and it smelled.

I came home, took a long shower, and seriously thought about all of this. I realized that Jo is also a hoarder, but much worse than my mom ever was. Mom always kept a clean house, but stuffed to the gills with "stuff". Everything in a pile and a pile for everything...that was literally her motto.

Then I looked around at my own house and realized that I was beginning to develop the same issue of holding on to stuff for all the wrong reasons.

So I began to clean. And declutter.

Since December, I have donated about 50 boxes of stuff and 10 large trashbags of clothes to either Big Brothers Big Sisters or Community Services League (our new temporary charity). The ladies in the coven have also been prompted to begin cleaning and have added several boxes and bags to my donations. We've also cleaned out our cupboards and pantries, completely filling my station wagon last month with food for the CSL pantry. Man, were they ever happy to see me show up!

I've been getting rid of furniture, too. I had end tables just piled up in the kitchen...and realized that some of them had been moving around with me for almost 30 years now, but were seldom actually used in any of my homes. Time for them to grace someone else's home for the next 30 years.

I've also been cleaning, scrubbing, painting, etc. I've gone through a large container of those antiseptic wipes, an entire bottle of Fantastik, two boxes of dusting cloths, an entire bottle of window cleaner, plus various other cleaning supplies as well.

I painted the sunporch. It's one of those aftermarket add-on rooms. We use it as the coven room and I decided that it looked remarkably dingy, so I started cleaning in there. When I realized that I couldn't get it to actually look clean, I went to Depot of Home, bought me some painting supplies, and started working. It took me three days, but I painted it a lovely shade of mint green with white trim, including the ceiling. I also cleaned the washer, dryer, glass table, windows, ceiling fan (including the light fixtures), and vacuumed. It looks really spiffy in there now!

I laundered every curtain in the house that could be thrown in the washer and made new curtains for my living room downstairs. Then I decided that there was something in that room that also needed painting. The I-beam and furnace duct runs the entire length of the basement, but in the living room it's covered by a plywood box. The previous owner had painted it white, but it was pretty miserable looking when we moved in. I had intended to repaint it, but just never got around to it.

It is now a lovely, bright white.

I've also been boxing up and cleaning things upstairs as well. And Dad fixed a drain downstairs that had been leaking for several years, but had recently gotten a lot worse. No more leaks! I recarpeted the cats' climbing pole, then reorganized and cataloged my bookcases, moving some of the books upstairs. Isla donated a lovely bookcase unit to the coven room, so now our main supplies and coven books have a permanent home.

I have everything downstairs as clean and as organized as it can possibly be, pared down to only the things I actually use and need. It's sooooo open and homey now. I've finished the coven room upstairs, too. Now I've started on the dining room. I took all of Mom's books off the shelves, boxing up some and giving the rest to Isla and Saoirse. So the built-in hutch and bookshelves are cleaned and organized now. I'm not sure what else I need to do in there, but I know I'll find something. Dad and I cleaned out all the closets (not sure about the one in his bedroom, but I think he did that one also). Now I'm looking at boxing up more knick knack thingys and seeing what else needs to be painted. I know some of the ceilings need to be painted, but I'm not sure if anything else does.

I also did a full house cleansing and blessing last week. We were starting to have those mysterious heavy thuds like last year and Dad suggested that it might be time to clean out the oogedyboogedys again. No more thumps, bumps or footsteps this week, so all is good.

So...whew...that's what I've been up to for the past 8 weeks.

Aren't you sorry you asked?

Oh...Jo's house is much better now. It seems that Bubba's friend Nathan is a clean freak. While visiting one night, he finally worked up his courage and asked Jo if she would mind if he cleaned up a couple of things for her. Jo offered to pay Nathan to clean the house and he took her up on it. It's all spiffy nice now...especially since Nathan comes over about once a week to maintain his original work. She has even repainted her living room, put up new curtains and is using her tax refund to get new furniture in there. When I get done with my house, I'm going to see if I can talk her into weeding out some of her clutter for donation as well. She loves helping other people, so maybe I can convince her that she'll be doing a great service to our charities by donating a lot of stuff. Here's hoping anyway.

Ciao.

Mood: light, cheery and quite self-satisfied

To do: much